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An increasing number of global firms adopt a primary language for business operations—usually English. The problem: The practice can surface dormant hostilities around culture and geography. Tsedal Neeley discusses her research in this story from HBS Working Knowledge.

BY KIM GIRARD

As global companies increasingly adopt a dominant language, usually English, which all employees must use to simplify communications and increase collaboration, many are dismayed to find an unexpected outcome.

Results are exactly opposite of what was intended.

Instead of making business operations more efficient, the use of such a lingua franca can add layers of complication and delay. And instead of fostering collaboration, it can create cultural fissures between employees.

It turns out that language wars are always simmering beneath the surface, as Harvard Business School Associate Professor Tsedal Neeley's research demonstrates.

"It's volcanic, waiting for something to ignite it, and then it explodes—and this is what we see in these global teams," says Neeley, whose work identifies not only the language problems but also what managers can do to overcome them.

The authors point to classic research by Dora Lau and Keith Murnighan on "faultlines"—team subgroups that form based on demographics. In Language as a Lightning Rod, this prior work is advanced to examine how language differences in subgroups can create an "us versus them" dynamic among workers, and how those schisms are linked to who holds power in firms.

The study follows 96 workers on six software development teams at a global high-tech company called by the pseudonym GlobalTech, based in Germany, with mixed nationality teams working in the United States, Germany, and India.

Two years before the study, GlobalTech standardized on English as its business language, to mixed reaction from employees. The US- and India-based workers seemed fine with the new policy (most Indian workers are already bilingual, training at university in English), while many Germans found reading and speaking English awkward, making it difficult to express and defend their ideas. According to the paper, based on interviews conducted by the research team, "nearly all of them expressed feeling some anxiety about having access to appropriate words," particularly when the work became highly technical, conversations became emotional, or when the workers were tired.

Five researchers interviewed and tracked GlobalTech team members through the workday, following them to meetings, teleconferences, at lunch, and at after-work social gatherings. For a team split between Germany and India, one researcher conducted observations at the German site, while another researcher observed in India during the same week.